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I've needed a real gun safe for a while now. Expensive ones are expensive, Cheap ones are made out of 11-18 gauge sheet metal. I bought a old amsec cash drop safe for 400 and proceeded to spend too much money on it.
The walls are 1/2 inch thick, and from what I can tell by drilling a hole int he bottom, some kinda of non standard steel. The Door is 1 inch thick. The main weakness seems to be the locking system. It doesn't have a bunch of bolts going every which way, but from what I can tell the reason most safes have that is to keep you from prying the door open. Unless the thieves have archenemies lever I doubt that is going to be an issue.
As it sat where I picked it up, it had been outside for a while and the bottom was a rusting a bit, The hole in the top is for the cash drop, and the locking mechanism was a bit messed up. You can see the top bolts aren't at the same extension as the bottom ones.
Seller said to bring plenty of help. I brought a long a Coffing hoist
The bottom after applying some rust converter. Also the strap that I killed despite having a real lifting strap 10 feet away.
Random can of rustoleum
The issue with the lock is a stud had been cut off. My guess is they lost the combination. It looked like a locksmith cut a hole in the side, removed cut off all the screws on the cover, cut off the stud and the handle then knocked the bolts out from the front handle hole. I'm sure that was cheap.
Welded a bit of 3/8 rod in place. The pretty yellow color is what happens when a rank armature (me) contaminates their tungsten
Threaded and filed down the weld so it works smoothly
Filled in the hole in the side, whoever fixed it just filled it in with epoxy and matched the paint. That's kinda security through obscurity.
Filled in the cash drop. I just happened to have some 1/2 scrap around. I don't weld with a stick very often but due to the size of the metals involved I had to do it pretty much exclusively to get penetration. I can run stringers ok "in position", but I'm not great everywhere else and there are a number of welds I'm not going to post on the internet.
Now for the part I probably should have skipped. Part of my plan was to add a little bit of fire resistance that most modern safes have. This included gluing fire rated backer board to the inner walls and building a 1/8 inner box. After doing a bunch of reading Very few of the drywall based solutions actually do anything, and 1/2 thick steel gives a pretty good time to combustion itself compared to cheaper safes with thin walls and insulation. This also added 200 dollars or so to the total price. Still cheap for the safe I'm getting, but not needed and wasteful.
Layout and dog.
A true master knows when to make something loose or tight. Here you can see liberal use of a 3 lb sledge and a block of wood.
Cut reliefs for the door locks. Also made some sheet metal plugs so you can't see the insulation.
Added shelving. Originally I was going to make it all out of 1/8th, but then I realized each shelf is going to have like 6 lbs of guns. The 16ga will support a couple hundred just fine.
It's sealed with mop glow... something a trendy furniture maker said he does. It seems to keep anything from coming off on my hands. I'm still going to build some kinda of wood stand for the pistols and rifles.
Sanded (those who can't weld grind).
I forgot, I added this eye temporarily to help move it around the shop. It's no longer temporary.
Primed with some 2 part automotive primer.
Finally Painted. (Rustoleum green, because it's thick and hides sins).
I put on the old lock. It's a bit tattered looking as the handle and dial are original amsec, but the lock itself seems to be a newer s&g. Now that I think of it I bet somebody tried to break in to the ace and likely tried to get into the safe by knocking the combination lock out via the dial. On this safe that causes a fail safe pin to fall and keep the lock assembly from moving. Then the store likely called the locksmith to break in through the side. Anyway If I find a good deal on a new lock I'll likely change it. I probably won't go digital as I have heard a number of horror stories.
Part of my deadline for getting this fixed up was a now past family vacation. In my haste I forgot the cover piece at my shop and it wasn't around when I did the painting. Doofus.
I also realize now I gave my self plenty of room to put shelving on the back of the door for magazines. If I ever see one this size on craigslist again I think I may take a crack at a version 2.0.
Now I need to make some stands to keep the guns nice and cozy. I have a bunch of mahogany left over from a project I did years ago, but when it comes to wood I'm sub novice.
58h24w20d outside, excluding the skyhook
53.5h21.5w17d insdie
It's a nice size for a few handguns and a couple of rifles, but if I had plans to buy more guns or a musket it wouldn't cut it. Part if it being a nice size is the metal shelving, It doesn't take up any space.
I looked on Craigslist when I started the project and there were some larger versions of this kind of safe, but I couldn't figure out how in the world I would move them. I can't with all of my weight move the safe enough to get a prybar under it unless I open the door and hang on it. This safe isn't rated, but it's in line with what at the time was tl-15 for amsec, If you step it up to tl-30 the walls are 1" plate and the door is 1.75". So 1000-1200 lbs more for the same size. I don't know if my slab can even take that over a 2x2 foot area. (there are other parts of that rating like anti drilling plates and better locks I'm sure).
06-07-2017, 02:12 AM
Love DIY projects like this.
